Crystal: A Pokémon Story

Chapters

Chapter 1: A Whole New World
Chapter 2: The Grand Scheme Of Things
Chapter 3: Magical Healing
Chapter 4: Moving Along
Chapter 5: Las Pegasus

Chapter 1: A Whole New World

Chris felt consciousness returning to him. His eyes remained closed as he felt his hands on the grass.

Wait a sec, grass? Why is there grass? Is this Heaven? I qualified for Heaven? Heaven exists? Wait, that thought alone would mean that I wouldn’t get into heaven, so where am I? he asked himself as he opened his eyes. He quickly noticed that ‘Heaven’ had a lot of trees. Too many trees. He also noticed that he was definitely laying in grass. He seemed to be in a forest clearing of some kind. There was even a soft breeze that blew pleasantly across his face.

Well this seems peaceful. Key word seems, he thought as he got up. He put his left hand on the grassy surface below to help lift himself up. He noticed something very wrong as he did this.

"WHY THE HELL IS MY HAND COMPLETELY BLACK!!!" he yelled as he grabbed it with his right hand. He noticed that this one was also completely black along with both of his arms. How did I get here!?! What the hell happened!?! he thought to himself, panicked. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!!" When he yelled this he instantly regreted it.

"Urrrrr." Chris heard a growl coming from the forest.

Okay. Seems there are more pressing matters at hand. And I guess that clinches it. This definitely isn't Heaven. Which means I’m either dreaming or I’m dead. I could also be in Hell but since I’m logical I would say those two locations are imaginative bullshit, so how am I here? I'll probably have to focus on that later, he thought, frantically looking for a place to hide.

Well this is really fuckin’ bad, he thought, trying to remember exactly what he was doing before randomly ending up in the clearing, to no avail. Seems I have minor amnesia. What was I doing before i passed ou- later. I can dwell on that later, he thought, scanning the clearing for a place to hide.

To his dismay the clearing was indeed, clear. He heard heavy footsteps coming from the forest trees directly in front of him. Since he now knew where the thing was coming from he looked for the pathway that would lead out of the clearing. It didn’t take him very long to find it, as it was just to the left of where he heard the footsteps coming from. When he looked behind him to see if he could escape into the trees, he found no trees. A large rock wall stood in his path. The only way to go now is up, he figured, as he ran to a tree that was the farthest away from where the footsteps were coming from, which happened to be right next to the rock wall.

"Urrrrr."

Whatever is after me is getting much closer way to quickly for my liking. Latching his black arms around the trunk of the tree, he began to climb it as fast as he could. He fortunately had practice climbing trees, which really came in handy for him at this moment in time. As he climbed the tree, he noticed that he had the same clothes on as the ones he had before being thrown into this situation; an orange San Francisco Giants shirt with the logo on the left hand side of the shirt. He assumed he didn’t have his hat, since he couldn't see the bill of it in front of his forehead. Seeing that particular shirt also made him figure that he may have been heading to a baseball game before this. If I don’t figure this out soon it’s gonna eat at me for the rest of my days. That’s given that whatever is coming this way doesn’t eat me first. This shirt also doesn’t help with stealth mode.

When he got onto a branch near the top of the tree that he could sort-of-safely sit on top of, he flipped his shirt around to check it. It definitely had the last name of his favorite player for the Giants, Hunter Pence, written across the top with the number eight plastered below it as well. His pants were about as black as he now was, which bothered him greatly due to the fact that it looked like he had nothing on at all. Other people would only tell that they were there because his little buddy was out of sight. He also realized that it wasn't just his arms that became black. His whole midsection was the same dark color as his arms. I guess that would mean I'm completely black all over, he thought as he heard the footsteps get louder. It was only a matter of seconds before the unidentified forest predator arrived.

When the beast finally got to the clearing, his eyes could not believe what he saw. It was a giant bear that was standing on two legs. It's fur was completely brown except for its muzzle and the large ring that was centered on its body, both of which having a light tan color that looked almost yellow. Chris knew what this creature was, and he was not happy about it being in his presence at the moment. He had played a lot of Pokèmon in the past, and still did, and the bear standing in front of him was portrayed as very hostile, and not the type of thing he wanted to piss off.

What the hell is an Ursaring doing here of all places! They're not supposed to be real! he thought frightened by the monster that could and would eat him alive if he got spotted.

The Ursaring scanned the clearing, clearly looking for what had yelled earlier, which was unfortunately Chris. The Ursaring never looked up, which was particularly good for Chris because he would stick out like a sore thumb due to his bright orange shirt. Once the bipedal bear confirmed that the coast was clear, it sat down on its back in the middle of the clearing and closed its eyes.

Oh you have gotta be kidding me. Can I catch a god damn break today!?! he inwardly complained as he pondered on what his next action should be. I could jump down there and run, but this is one hell of a drop. He gulped as he looked down at the 30 foot or so drop. I'm probably just gonna need to sit and wait for it to get up and leave, he decided as he got himself as comfortable as he could on the hard, thin branch of the tree. Five minutes or so passed when Chris heard something that he did not want to hear.

CRACK!!!

You cannot be serious right now, was his final thought before the branch gave way under him and he fell down to the ground along with it. This caused the Ursaring wake up, and it stared at him as if to say, 'any last words.’ Chris began to rise but his left ankle protested and he fell right back down to the ground with a yell of pain. Great. I twisted it or something. It's as if God himself is working against me, which wouldn't be all that surprising. He looked up to the Ursaring with fear in his eyes.

"Nice bear?" he asked as pleasantly as possible.

"UUURRRRRR!!!"

"Why did I even ask?” Chris said as he got up to his feet despite the pain. He turned around and bolted but didn't get very far as his ankle gave up, making him fall about two feet from where he started. The Ursaring immediately pounced and pinned his arms to the ground. Chris tried to knee the Ursaring, but it's heavy body was right on top of his legs. There was only one thing left to do.

"HELP! I'M GONNA DIE!!!" he yelled out, likely to no avail.

The Ursaring wrapped a paw around Chris’ throat and put a knee on top of him, probably to prevent him from screaming again. Why isn’t it eating me? Am I gonna get raped by a bear that I used in every one of my Silver playthroughs!?! He thought panicked, frantically flailing to no avail. When his lungs began to burn he focused all his efforts on trying to push the bear up to catch a breath, but the Ursaring just crushed his neck more forcefully. The Ursaring quickly transitioned to pressing its full body mass onto Chris, as he realized this was less about rape and more about murder, and he felt a couple of cracks. With a worthless ankle, deprived of oxygen, and now broken ribs, Chris closed his eyes and prepared to die.

"Vulpix use Flamethrower!"

Right before he was about to pass out, Chris witnessed a huge stream of fire smash into the Ursaring, throwing it a few feet away from him, allowing Chris to gasp for breath. The Ursaring got up and retreated into the forest, clearly not wanting to deal with more of the scorching flames.

He looked over to where the flames had come from and saw two figures make their way into the clearing. Leading the two was a small fox-like creature. Its fur was a red-brown color and it had six tails. Chris recognized this as a Vulpix. What followed the Vulpix into the clearing was even more astonishing.

It was a pony, but the problem with that was the fact that it stood on two legs. He could tell it was a pony due to the muzzle that was attached to its face. When he studied its features more closely, he could tell that it was a female due to her large... chest. Her fur was a yellow color that could possibly be interpreted as tan and hair that had steaks of yellow and red making it seem like it was on fire. The most stunning feature of all was the long horn that was on the top of her head. He was looking at an anthropomorphic unicorn.

I've officially seen it all, in the span of five minutes, he thought, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. When he looked at her again, she was definitely still a pony-like creature. He then moved to pinch himself on the cheek to try to wake himself up, but remembered the searing pain in his ankle and realized that this was not a dream like he had already known, but silently hoped was the case. This is happening way to fast. I NEED TIME TO ADJUST!!! he screamed inwardly as the mare looked at him with a confused look on her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah of course. I'm just peachy. In fact I couldn't be better,” he replied with as much sarcasm as any human being could muster up.

"Sweet Celestia, chill,” she said moving over to him. She reached out a hand to help him up. He grabbed hold and pulled himself up, making sure to keep pressure off of his ankle.

"Thanks. I owe ya one,” he said.

“No problem, but you should really be thanking Vulpix. She did all of the work,” she said looking down to the fox pokémon with a smile.

"Uh... yeah. Thank you Vulpix,” he said, still baffled as to why his childhood was currently standing right in front of him.

"Vulpix!" it replied cheerfully, smiling at Chris.

"Well I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Sunset Shimmer and I'm a Pokémon Trainer,” she said, confirming Chris' suspicions.

Well like most horses back on Earth, she has a stupid name. And I suppose I should follow suit. I think i’ll give myself a new name for this seemingly fresh start. He thought, beginning to ponder on a new name for himself. I could go with Hunter Pence for my own personal amusement as that name is probably the best one that anybody has ever had, but that would just be confusing to me. I am also a fan of his, hence not worthy to share a name with him, he thought sarcastically, making him chuckle a bit to himself. Maybe I could do something with my actual name. He thought about what the name Chris could become. Chris. What can I do with Chris? I got it!

"Crystal Light. Nice to meet you Sunset Shimmer,” he told her, instantly regretting his decision. That sounded so much better in my head. Well it's too late now. I'm officially a brand of powdered drinks.

"Please. Call me Sunset,” she practically demanded.

"Okay thank god. Call me Chrys,” Chrys replied back, correcting his blunder. Light is a decent last name though.

"Okay then Chrys. I have a lot of questions for you, but they can wait for later. You seem to be in a hell of a lot of pain,” she said, looking at his posture and seeing his hand rested on his stomach.

No shit Sherlock. And you have questions? What about my fuckin’ questions bitchface? he thought to himself, not wanting to voice his annoyance to the person, or pony in this case, who saved his hide. "Yeah. My ankle feels like shit and I'm 99 percent sure a couple of my ribs broke under that bastards 500 pounds of bear meat,” he replied instead, wincing at the pain that shot through him as he spoke. It was obviously his ribs being douche bags.

"I can help you to the nearest town if you want. Unfortunately it's a little too far away from here to head there right now. We'd have to sleep the night somewhere in the forest," she explained. He clearly couldn't pass up the offer as he was in no condition to get to the town himself. He also had no idea where he was going, which would be quite the inconvenience if he was on his own. There was also the fact that pokémon would want to kill him and he had none of his own to defend himself.

"Yeah that sounds like a plan. As if I have much of a choice,” he groaned as he sat himself down.

"What in Equestria do you think you're doing?" she scolded.

Equestria? Really? That's the best they could do? he thought as he looked at her with confusion. “I thought we could just stay here,” he told her. Sunset shook her head.

"Are you insane? That Ursaring won't stay away forever. This is more than likely a part of the territory it’s claimed for itself," she said. Chrys' eyes widened at this.

"You bring up a fantastic point,” he replied. "Let's get the fuck outta here." He moved to get up, but once he put pressure on his left foot, he winced in pain and fell back down. I'm beginning to think I did a lot worse than twist it, he thought as he looked to Sunset. "Heh heh. A little help?"

Sunset just stared at him flatly. "Go Gallade,” she said as she threw out what appeared to be a pokéball.

Why that surprised Chrys was beyond him at the moment. Am I really that dense? I mean, I just saw the Vulpix. Naturally she would have a pokéball for it to retreat into.

The aforementioned Gallade popped out of the ball. "Can you help this guy up?" she asked it. Gallade looked at Chrys with a hint of anger in its eyes, but obliged and helped him to his feet.

That was weird, he thought as he looked to the Blade Pokémon. "Uh... thanks,” he said, awaiting its reaction. Gallade just nodded and motioned for Chrys to wrap an arm around it. Chrys did as silently told and the Gallade did the same to him. Chrys looked uneasily at the swords protruding from its elbows. "Can you be careful with those things? I think I’ve had enough injuries for one day."

"Gallade!" it yelled, looking annoyed. Chrys moved his head away from the angry pokémon.

"Christ almighty dude! That's a perfectly legitimate concern! I’m not saying you’re bad with ‘em,” he yelled back.

Vulpix started to look upset by the screaming match, folding its ears over, and Sunset was starting to get livid. "Can you two jack offs please quit your bickering so we can find someplace that the Ursaring cannot find us?" Gallade turned his head away from Chrys to looked forward and Chrys looked at it bewildered.

"Okay whatever. Let's just find somewhere safe where there aren't any monster bears,” Chrys suggested.

"Agreed,” Sunset replied annoyed.

Well this is just fan-fucking-tastic, he thought, feeling a little homesick. I didn't ask for any of this crap. I was perfectly happy with my life. Just my luck I guess.

Author's Note

https://youtu.be/uYx9RH1Vo2E

Chapter 2: The Grand Scheme Of Things

After what felt like hours of walking to get as far away from the Ursaring as possible, the group finally found a spot that they all deemed safe. It was actually about 20 minutes, but it felt like longer thanks to the constant bickering between Gallade and Chrys. Gallade would get mad every time Chrys stumbled. That would be followed by Chrys yelling at him about the fact that his leg was badly injured. Sunset had to tell them to be quiet numerous times and she developed a headache over the course of the walk.

The spot they settled on was a small area in between a few trees. It wasn’t as big as the clearing they all met in and it also wasn’t technically a clearing, since it had another entry/exit point opposite to where they had entered. Even though it was smaller, it allowed them to stick together for safety and not be cramped together at the same time in case the Ursaring showed up, and they had they escape route since the Ursaring would have to come from the direction that they did.

Gallade put Chrys down by a tree to the left of where they entered the area. Once seated, Chrys watched the team go to work setting up camp. Sunset set up a tent with Gallade while Vulpix began to gather twigs, presumably for a fire. It took the group no longer than ten minutes to put everything together. A campfire with a makeshift stand above it with a metal pot hanging from it was in the center of the area and a tent was in the corner. Sunset began to put some vegetables into the pot.

“You cook?” Chrys commented more than he asked.

“I’m on the road all the time. Had to teach myself at some point,” she replied, opening her bag that Chrys only just noticed that she had.

Wow. I am particularly blind today, he thought, as Sunset pulled out a couple of tupperware containers and two bowls. The containers held small, brown pellets just slightly bigger than mini marshmallows.

“Is that for the pokémon?” Chrys asked. Sunset simply nodded as she set the bowls down and poured the food in them, using one container to fill one bowl and the second container to fill the other bowl. The food must be separated for the two of them, he thought as the two pokémon began messily eating their meals. Sunset went back to the pot began stirring whatever she was making, which Chrys couldn’t smell much of. Now I wonder why that is.

“So,” Sunset started. “What is a changeling doing in the middle of the Kokiri Forest?” she asked.

You can’t be serious. Kokiri Forest? How many game references am I gonna encounter, he thought, as something else Sunset said popped into the forefront of his mind. So I’m a changeling, huh. Might as well tell her the truth. “I’m not sure, but I can tell you one thing with certainty. I was not a changeling an hour ago. I don’t know what the hell happened but I was definitely not this,” Chrys explained. Sunset glared at him suspiciously as her horn lit up briefly.

“Then what were you?” she asked.

“I was a human,” he replied. Right when he was about to start explaining what a human was, Sunset interrupted him, a look of total shock plastered on her face.

“Human! You mean hairless, ape-like creatures that don’t have tails and can’t use magic and are all wingless!?!” She asked him. Now it was Chrys’ turn to look shocked.

“Yeah... but how did you know all that?” Chrys asked, slack-jawed.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story. To put it simply I was... sent through this magical mirror made by a unicorn legend that took me to a parallel world from this one. I spent a few years there actually,” she said.

“Where did you end up? I’m from San Francisco.”

“San Francisco? I’ve never heard of that,” Sunset replied, scratching her chin. Chrys looked just as bewildered.

“You’ve never heard of San Francisco? It’s one of the top cities people tour to in the United States.” Sunset looked even more confused.

“United States?”

“...”

“I think it’s safe to say I’m from a different human world than the one you were in,” Chrys concluded.

“Agreed. But if that’s the case, you didn’t get here through the mirror, so how are you here right now?” Sunset asked rhetorically.

“I wish I knew that myself,” Chrys replied.

“Well I can tell you one thing. You’re in deep trouble thanks to your new body.”

“Um, why is that?” Chrys asked worried.

“There is a very hostile relationship between ponies and changelings,” Sunset explained.

“How so?”

So Sunset told him of the attack on the wedding in Canterlot, and the infiltration of the changelings on the Equestrian royalty and the Elements of Harmony, which she also explained to Chrys. She told him of the changeling queen and her ambitions as she knew them. She also explained their unique eating habits and what she knew of changeling biology and culture, which also explained why he could barely smell the food she was making.

Sunset gave Chrys a small mirror to look at himself in. He was completely black, like he had already figured out. His eyes were completely green and he had a crooked horn on his head, something he really wanted to learn how to use. Sunset continued her explanation once he took everything he knew so far in.

“So after that infiltration was thwarted by Starlight Glimmer and her companions, the changelings all transformed into a greater state of being. They grew up in a sense. They no longer need to feed on love and emotions. But, according to the changelings and ponies who were there, Chrysalis didn’t give up her worthless pride, and she ran to begin plotting her revenge on Starlight, and created the new breed of changelings, what you now are, which are referred to as Newbloods. The only noticeable difference between Reborns and Newbloods is that the Newbloods have green eyes, but they are supposedly wired differently to be completely submissive to Chrysalis,” Sunset explained.

“Uh... than you have no reason to trust me,” Chrys pointed out. Sunset shook her head.

“Actually, I can. Scientists studied captured Newbloods and found out that-“

Chrys cut her off. “Isn’t that torture? Is torture not illegal here?” he asked

“Not necessarily. They only released the fact that they studied them and what the results of the studies were. What they did to them specifically, nobody knows.”

Chrys nodded, but something didn’t sit right with him. That pretty much convinced me that something bad happened to those changelings. I can’t really do anything about it though, so I’ll try not to dwell on it too much.

“So anyway, in order for Chrysalis to control a changeling, regardless of the type of changeling,” Sunset continued, “she needs a changeling to be connected to her hive mind in order to control them. I learned a spell a while back that allows me to sense whether someone is connected to a hive mind in order to protect us from being deceived or tricked. I cast it when you said you weren’t a changeling originally. It showed me that you aren’t connected to any hive mind whatsoever. That’s why I can trust you.” Chrys just nodded and motioned for her to continue.

“The Newblood changelings, along with all others that aren’t Reborns, were recently classified as a terrorist organization, which hasn’t happened to this world in like, ever. They’ve attacked numerous major cities in Equestria and all of the other countries. They attack using their pokémon as well as magic, and they can easily infiltrate thanks to their ability to transform. Chrysalis isn’t the only Queen either. It’s believed that there is at least one queen running a sector of the organization within pretty much every country.”

“Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down a second. There’s more than one hive?”

“Yes. The Griffin Kingdom has had the most encounters with their queen. I believe her name is Hornet. Japan has had a major problem as well. Nothing is definitive, but it’s practically accepted that it is highly likely all of the hives are working with each other to achieve some sort of goal or multiple goals.”

Chrys scratched his chin. This just raises more questions. What’s their end game? How many hives are there exactly? There are Griffons? Why is Japan just Japan and not some stupid pun? Chrys thought as Sunset sat down next to him, slowly chewing on whatever she made.

“I’ve actually had run-ins with the Newbloods before.” Chrys’ eyes shot up in surprise at this.

“How did that go?” he asked, genuinely concerned for the mare.

“Not as bad as it could’ve went. Actually met Gallade in that... encounter, as a Kirlia.”

“Don’t tell me that-“

It was Sunset’s turn to cut him off. “Yup. He was a changeling drones pokémon, and he wasn’t treated all that well. It’s why he got so angry with you. Please don’t hold it against him,” Sunset explained. Chrys had many questions, but decided to hold the more personal of them off for later, as the topic was something Sunset clearly didn’t want to talk about.

“Yeah. No problem,” he replied. “And you said drone? Is that some sort of changeling class?” he asked.

“Yeah. They are the bottom class. From bottom to top, it goes drone, soldier, admin, queen. Drones are born as drones and soldiers are born as soldiers. Admins are just soldiers that have proven themselves worthy of being promoted, and there are supposedly only six per hive. Queens obviously run the show and shit like that.”

“Do the queens birth everybody like in a bee hive, ‘cause I notice that we’re kinda bug-like?”

“According to Thorax, the king of the Reborn changelings, yes and no. If a queen wants to start up a hive, which is what Chrysalis obviously did, they can produce changelings however they want to with their magic. This process allows the hive to grow very rapidly. From that point, the changelings and the queen can make children with their... organs. So they can do the things... with those... parts.”

“Yeah yeah. I got it.” Both of them blushed furiously. “You also mentioned that the Reborn changelings don’t need to worry about feeding on emotions. How do I do that then?” Chrys asked.

“I don’t have the answer to that one,” she answered.

“And you know so much,” Chrys replied with a smirk.

“I studied up on it to know what I have to know to be prepared for anything they’re able to dish out. It’s also taught in schools. This is all pretty common knowledge at this point,” Sunset explained.

“So maybe I just need to go to this Thorax and ask him myself,” Chrys decided. “Would you be willing to help me get there, as I don’t know where the hell they live?” He asked her. Sunset contemplated on it, looking to her pokémon, who had both finished eating at this point. Vulpix ran up to Sunset nuzzling her leg.

“Vulpix seems to be okay with it. How about you Gallade?” The blade pokémon looked to Sunset and than to Chrys, staring at the latter, who promptly gulped.

“Gallade,” it replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“Thank you. I don’t know what the hell I would do on my own,” Chrys said.

“No problem. It isn’t like we do much of anything besides travel anyway. I also haven’t been to Thorax’s hive and I hear it’s become quite the spectacle in recent years,” Sunset said.

“Cool. So what are we doing about my leg?”

“There’s a town pretty close to here that I just came from. If we follow the path we were taking we can make it there in a half hour tomorrow. I’ll finish eating and we can pick this conversation up at the Pokémon Center tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

When the group woke up, they began to pack their things immediately. Once they were all packed, they began to move towrds the town nearby. Sunset took the point, Gallade held Chrys in the middle, and Vulpix trailed them in case the Ursaring got too close. They walked for ten minutes or so in silence until Chrys decided to break it.

“So how long have you been a trainer, Sunset?” he asked.

“About two years, give or take.”

“So you only have these two with you?”

“Yeah. I met Vulpix first.” She paused for a minute, contemplating how to phrase her story. “I was living in Vanhoover for the first few years of being back in this world. I was bored one day so I decided to venture out into the area just outside of the city. That’s where we met,” she explained.

“So what happened that made Vulpix become your partner?” Chrys asked.

“Not much. We just clicked. We became fast friends and she came home with me that day. She lived with me for a week or so before we finally decided to go explore the world together and experience things for ourselves. I officially caught her and we went on our way.” She looked up to the sky. “I wish everything stayed that simple,” she sighed.

“The changelings ruined everything I suppose,” Chrys stated.

“Ever since I met Gallade, nothing’s been the same, not that I regret saving him,” she said. Gallade was about to try and keep her from telling Chrys everything about how they met when the human-turned-changeling patted the blade pokémons shoulder.

“It’s okay man. I’d like to know what happened to you so I can be more motivated to help kick their asses as well.” They all stared at him stunned.

“You don’t even have a pokémon! How do you suppose you’ll stop a massive army!?!” Sunset questioned, baffled.

“By getting some and training them. Duh,” he replied.

“But you don’t know the first thing about training a pokémon,” Sunset pointed out. Gallade nodded in agreement.

“I know more than you think,” Chrys replied.

“How?”

“That information is for me to know and for you to find out,” he snarkily replied, not wanting to say that his knowledge came from an anime and video games. “Just trust me. I have a decent idea on what to do.”

“When we get to the Pokémon Center, I want you to prove it,” she challenged.

“Sure thing. Let me get right on that with all those pokémon I don’t have,” Chrys said sarcastically.

“I’ll let you borrow Vulpix, as I doubt Gallade would listen to you.” Gallade confirmed this with a nod.

“That works for me I guess,” Chrys conceded.

The rest of the walk went by silently. It took them 15 more minutes to arrive at the next town, fortunately without incident, where they came upon a sign that read Kokiri Village in big, bold letters. Chrys inwardly groaned at this.

Fuck off Equestria. That wasn’t even a place in the game. There was a village, but it was just called Kokiri Forest, he thought to himself as they entered the the village. Their destination was impossible to miss, as it was the big, red building in the center of town. As the group began walking towards the Pokémon Center, they were almost immediately stopped by the townsponies.

“What in Celestia’s name are you doing here with a Newblood,” said an old earth pony male. His coat was brown and he was wearing a green tunic, white pants, and had brown boots and gloves on.

I swear on my mothers grave, if I see any more bullshit like this I’m gonna strangle an infant, Chrys thought, annoyed at the off brand pony version of Link. I suppose I need to get this outta the way.

“What is your name?” he asked the earth pony, dreading the highly possible outcome.

“I am simply known as Shroom,” Shroom replied.

Weird, but he doesn’t look like Mario, so I’m okay with this. “I’m Chrys. I come in peace. And pain,” he said to the elder pony, pointing to his leg.

“Nonsense! This is just a setup! Chrysalis is trying to take control of our fair village!” Shroom declared as a crowd began to form, vocalizing their agreement with several cheers. Sunset face-palmed while Chrys slouched his shoulders and adorned a look of disbelief.

“You realize that’s profiling and I really don’t appreciate that,” Chrys said, somewhat genuinely but mostly to be obnoxious. Sunset glared at him with the rest of the mob.

“Don’t make this worse than it already is,” she demanded through gritted teeth.

“Okay then. More importantly, why would Chrysalis want to take over a town in the middle of bumfuck nowhere,” Chrys deadpanned. This caused the crowd to gasp, clearly offended. “What? That’s a fact. You are literally surrounded by trees and nothing else.”

“Get ‘em!!!”

The crowd started charging at the group and Sunset looked at the changeling with a look of death in her eyes. “Hold on,” she commanded. Gallad nodded as he grabbed Vulpix and Sunset put her hand on his shoulder. The unicorns horn lit up causing them to disappear and the ponies of the angry mob slammed into each other.

The group reappeared right outside of the Pokémon Center. Everyone besides Chrys moved in since the Newblood was in a daze. This forced Gallade to carry him inside, cradling him like a baby. The blade pokémon set down the changeling in a chair by the entrance befor sitting up against the wall himself. Chrys blinked a few times before he spoke.

“What... the fuck,” he said, rubbing his eyes.

“That’s my line! What the hell were you thinking you twit!?!” Sunset screamed. Chrys just stared at her.

“I’m a professional asshole,” was his reply, causing Sunset to blankly stare at him.

“No argument there,” she said, looking around the center. “Where is Nurse Joy?” she asked to nobody in particular.

As if on cue, a white mare with a pink mane and tail entered through a hallway on the left hand side of the lobby. She wore a pink dress and had a cap with a red cross on it. Next to her was a pink, egg shaped pokémon. It had three hair-like growths on the sides of its head, tipped with a darker shade of pink. There was a dark pink pouch on the center of its belly that contained a single white egg. Its arms were stubby, and it had small, dark pink feet. Chrys recognized it to be a Chansey, which was pretty standard for a Nurse Joy so he didn’t question it.

What he did question however was the pokémon that came in after Joy and Chansey. A small, blue, canine pokémon that had black legs and a black torso, a blue tail, and a yellow collar. Its eyes were blood red and were staring angrily right at him. Chrys knew this was a Riolu, as Lucario was his favorite pokémon by a large margin. Before he could vocalize how cool this was, the Riolu lunged at him while Nurse Joy just stood completely still, presumably in fear.

Vulpix immediately sprung into action and blocked the attack, which seemed to be a Focus Punch, with a blue sphere that enveloped her body, which looked like Protect. The Riolu glared at the Vulpix, growling at her.

“Are you nuts!?! You do realize what you’re protecting, right!?!” said a feminine voice. Sunset and Chrys blinked repeatedly.

“Did that Riolu just talk?” Chrys asked.

“Not talk. But it definitely is able to speak using telepathy. It’s just so rare that I’m a bit taken aback by it,” Sunset explained.

“So what!?! You’re protecting a Newblood!?! That’s a bit more disconcerting than me speaking!” Riolu angrily replied. Chrys shakily stood up.

“I’m not with them! I just woke up from... a coma. I have no clue what’s been going on besides what Sunset told me!” Chrys shouted back, however Riolu was not buying it. She charged at him at blistering speeds. Vulpix blocked it again with a Quick Attack of her own, landing in front of Chrys. This gave Sunset an idea.

“Hey Chrys,” Sunset said.

“Yeah...” Chrys replied, fearing where this was going.

“You battle the Riolu,” she suggested. Vulpix turned her head back and nodded. “She can use Flamethrower, Quick Attack, Protect, and Extrasensory.”

“Fuck it,” Chrys sighed and moved behind Vulpix, putting pressure on his good leg. Riolu got into a boxer-like fighting stance and motioned with her paw for them to go first.

Here goes everything. “Vulpix use Quick Attack!” he commanded. Vulpix charged Riolu at full speed. Riolu dodged with a Quick Attack of her own. The emanation pokémon swiftly changed directions, and using her momentum, she hit Vulpix with a Focus Punch. The punch sent Vulpix flying across the lobby, but the fire fox managed to land on her feet.

“You good?” Chrys asked. Vulpix nodded and got in a battle stance. “Okay. Use Flamethrower.” Vulpix did as commanded and a stream of blazing hot fire exited her mouth. Once the fire was about to hit Riolu, her leg set ablaze, and she kicked the Flamethrower up towards the ceiling, but it never hit it.

Blaze Kick huh. Now I know what one of her parents is, Chrys thought to himself, thinking about how to respond. His thoughts were cut short as Riolu used a Quick Attack in an attempt to reach Vulpix. I got it!

“Extrasensory!” Vulpix did just that, catching Riolu in the Extrasensory’s grip. “Now! Use Flamethrower!” Vulpix let her flames loose. The force of the flames sent Riolu out of Vulpix’s psychic grip and into the wall opposite of the fox pokémon. Riolu then slid down the wall, passed out from battle. Sunset and Gallade’s jaws dropped and Vulpix stared innocently at the two of them. Chrys faced the Riolu, pointing all his fingers at her with his thumb extended upwards.

“Boi,” was all he said, making Vulpix burst into a fit of giggles, Sunset and Gallade’s jaws drop lower, and Chrys shake his head at himself. I apologize o mighty meme lords.

“What? Why? How did you know to do that!?!” Sunset asked after composing herself.

“If there is one thing I’ve learned in my life, it is to pull shit out my ass at the right moments,” Chrys replied.

“So you’re saying you had no idea that would work?”

“That is exactly what I am saying, yes,” Chrys said, rubbing the back of his head with a stupid grin on his face.

Author's Note

https://youtu.be/gFez5SoThuE

Part of this chapter is absolute buttcheeks in my opinion so I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of anything good that fit with the idea that I had in mind for how I’d get things going so I ended up going with shitty references. I definitely wanna reboot this chapter and will eventually get around to it. Please don't sue me and I appreciate any suggestions or criticisms you may have.

Chapter 3: Magical Healing

“Okay, so you’re a good guy?” Nurse Joy asked.

“Yes,” Chrys replied. Everyone was sitting in the lobby in order to settle things down. Joy and Chansey were opposite Chrys, Sunset, and Gallade. Vulpix was napping on the table in between them and the passed out Riolu was laying in the lap of the unicorn nurse. Sunset had explained everything to Joy and Chansey. It was tough for them to believe, but Joy ended up casting the same spell Sunset did to check if Chrys was connected to a hive mind. Once she confirmed he wasn’t, she was able to relax a bit.

That spell must be something all unicorns are capable of and know, Chrys thought, scratching his chin.

Sunset spoke up next. “His leg is in bad shape-“

Chrys cut her off. “And my ribs.”

“And his ribs. We were hoping to get some assistance, but we didn’t exactly get the warmest welcome,” Sunset explained.

“Shouldn’t have expected you would have,” Joy said. “Follow me. I’ll take a look at your leg.”

“And my ribs.”

“And your ribs,” Joy said with a giggle. She set down Riolu on the couch and got up, moving towards the hallway that they all initially entered the lobby throught. Sunset followed and Gallade picked up Chrys, cradling him like a baby, much to his dismay. He didn’t question it however as they moved towards a room at the end of the hallway. Once they entered, Gallade set down Chrys on the table in the center of the room.

“Okay sir, I’m going to cast a quick x-ray spell to assess the damage and we’ll take whatever actions necessary from there,” Joy explained. Chrys nodded and waited. Joy’s horn briefly lit up with a pink aura. Once it went out she nodded and wrote a few notes on a clipboard she got somewhere along the way.

“How you are not screaming in pain right now is beyond me. You have a ruptured achilles,” Joy explained.

“... That’s not good. It definitely hurts, but I guess that all the adrenaline I’ve released recently reduced the amount of pain I felt,” Chrys assumed. “How about my ribs.” Joy’s horn lit up again. Are you kidding me. How is everyone forgetting about my damn ribs. And why is it called an achilles here? That doesn’t make any sense. I guess they have the same legend, or a similar one.

“Only one seems to be broken and hence an easy fix. So is the ankle, but that will hurt a bit and it’ll need to be wrapped after the spell works its magic. That will also take me a while,” Joy explained. Chrys blinked repeatedly.

“I wish humans had healing magic that fixed broken bones in minutes,” Chrys said. Joy nodded.

“It definitely comes in handy. Medical magic has come a long way. In order to become a nurse or doctor anywhere nowadays, you need to learn these spells, and be able to perform them. Now I’ll need you to brace yourself. This will hurt a bit.” Chrys nodded. “I’m doing the rib first.” With that, Joy’s horn lit again, and this time Chrys felt something. It wasn’t a terrible pain, but it was definitely something that he didn’t want to experience too often. It took only ten seconds at most for his rib to feel completely fine again.

“Wow. That’s really impressive. Thank you,” Chrys said.

“Just doing my job. Now the ankle. Since the spell pulls at the tendon and forces it back together, this will hurt a lot more. Brace yourself,” she said again. Chrys held onto the table, clenching his hands around its edges. Joy’s horn lit and he immediately felt an excruciating pain. He bit his bottom lip, but stopped when he saw tremendous fangs extending out of his mouth and scraping along his chin.

“Why didn’t I see those before?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“They’re retractable fangs. They pop out whenever you want them to, or in your case, not when you want them to,” the nurse explained. Chrys just nodded, trying to make the fangs retract so he could focus on something other than the pain in his ankle. Once he got them to work with him, Sunset spoke up.

“There’s another thing about you that’s also been bugging me,” Sunset said.

“That is...”

“You don’t seem to have any wings. All changelings, regardless of their subspecies, have wings,” Sunset explained.

“Fine by me. If there is anything I don't wanna be doing, it’s flying. And how would that even work? The wings would need to be huge to lift up something or someone my size,” Chrys remarked, waiting for the long and complicated explanation on how it worked.

“Magic,” replied both mares.

“Of course.” Chrys sighed, deciding not to question it any further, and he went back to waiting for his ankle to heal. Another painful minute went by before a question that ate at Chrys since they met the nurse rose to the forefront of his mind. “You have a Chansey with you, which makes sense for a nurse to have, but why do you have a Riolu?” he asked.

“Two things. One, Riolu isn’t my pokémon. She lives in the surrounding forest, but comes here almost daily to help the sick and injured pokémon, as well as bring some in sometimes,” she explained.

“I see.”

“What’s the second thing?” Sunset asked.

“Just because I’m a nurse doesn’t mean I would only have a Chansey. Even if that is the case for me, I can catch more pokémon. I just choose not to,” Joy said, slightly miffed.

She must get that a lot, Chrys thought. The rest of the healing session remained silent. It took Joy another three minutes to tie the tendon back together. Once she finished, her horn dimmed and she wiped a bead of sweat of her forehead. She then grabbed a roll of medical tape, took off Chrys’ sock and shoe, and tightly wrapped his ankle.

“Okay... all done. Now walk on it,” she instructed. Chrys got up and started moving. To his surprise, he could walk perfectly normal. There was however a minor pain still lingering in his ankle, but it was bearable and would probably go away in a week or so.

“It feels fine,” said the changeling. “Thanks.”

“Like I said, just doing my job,” Joy replied with a smile. “We should probably go back and check on-“

BOOM

“Riolu and Vulpix...”

Sunset sprinted towards the lobby with worry on her face, Gallade following suit. Joy, Chrys, and Chansey did more of a jog to get to the origin of the explosion. When the lobby was in view, they saw Sunset standing completely still and Gallade ready for a fight. When they entered the lobby, their jaws dropped. A massive hole was next to the entrance to the Pokémon Center. What stood in that hole made everyone freeze.

“UUURRRRR!!!”

“OH COME THE FUCK ON!!!” Chrys yelled in frustration. The same, or what he presumed to be the same, Ursaring from before stood in the hole in the wall. Before anyone could react, a massive ball formed in Ursarings hands. It let the ball fly at the closest thing to it, which happened to be Vulpix. This sent the fox pokémon flying across the room into a wall.

“Vulpix!” Sunset cried, running towards her fallen companion. The next blast was aimed at Riolu, but she swiftly dodged it by doing some backflips right when it was about to hit her, and it blew up on the ground instead. As she landed her last flip, she transferred into a Quick Attack, hitting the Ursaring in the midsection, causing it to stumble back a bit.

Nurse Joy and Chansey went to Sunset and Vulpix, no doubt to try and heal it. Gallade followed, probably to protect them all in case an attack got deflected towards them.

I have an idea, but it depends on what Riolu can do to that thing. The Quick Attack didn’t phase it much, Chrys thought. He scanned the room, looking for Sunset’s bag. When he found it on the chair by the side of the entrance that wasn’t ransacked, he sprinted over to it. This action caught the Ursaring’s attention, and it fired a Focus Blast at him this time. Chrys used his Call of Duty knowledge, and dolphin dived toward the chair, making the blast miss its mark and hit the wall behind him. His dive took him behind the chair, so he reached over and pulled Sunset’s bag to him.

She has to have one in here, Chrys thought as he rummaged through the bag. He dug his hand to the bottom of the bag, feeling something round. He pulled it out and it was exactly what he was looking for. A sphere that was the size of a ping pong ball and was half red, half white, and a black ring was wrapped around it. A white button rested on top of the ring, a button that he quickly found and pressed. The ball extended in his hand to the size of a baseball. Perfect. If I get the Ursaring in this, then everything will be fine. Even if it doesn’t stay in, it buys us time to regroup. Now lets see what’s going on here.

Chrys poked his head up from behind the chair to see where he needed to throw the ball to complete his plan. What he saw wasn’t pretty. Riolu was unable to stand straight. She was on one knee, badly hurt with cuts and bruises all over her body. The Ursaring was standing over her, looking about ready to pounce. Riolu was closer to Chrys than the Ursaring was, so he changed his plan. Since the ball would get to her faster, he hurled it at Riolu. Right when Ursaring was about to use a Hammer Arm attack to put Riolu out of commission for good, the ball hit Riolu’s head, and she entered the ball. This made Ursaring turn its attention to Chrys again, and it proceeded to charge him.

“Fuckmylifefuckmylifefuckmylife!” he yelled in panic, running away as fast as his legs could carry him, which wasn’t as fast as he could probably go when fully healed. The Ursaring never gained any distance, but neither did Chrys. “A little help Gallade!”

The pokémon in question, quite literally, jumped to action, landing in between Chrys and the hibernator pokémon. Gallade released a flurry of punches and kicks that made the Ursaring cry out in pain as they all hit their marks. The combo was wrapped up with a roundhouse that sent the bear flying a few feet, landing on its backside.

“Gallade, use Thunderbolt!” Sunset commanded. Gallade wrapped itself in raging sparks of electricity, letting a massive beam of them hit the Ursaring, making it fly through the hole in the wall that it created, back into the forest whence it came.

“Holy shit. I just saw a blastoff in person,” he muttered to himself, dumbfounded. And that Gallade is something else. Ursaring wasn’t a match for him and it was smacking around Riolu- wait. My Riolu? Chrys looked over to where the ball had landed. Sure enough, only the ball was there, Riolu nowhere to be seen. He walked over to the ball and picked it up.

“Huh. Not how I expected that to happen,” Chrys said. He threw the ball and out came Riolu, looking no better than when she went in. She looked up to Chrys, a stoic expression on her face.

“Thanks,” she said. Chrys stared blankly at her in disbelief. “You saved my life. I’m sorry for attacking you earlier.”

She looks like shit, he thought, kneeling to get eye level with her. “You okay?” he asked. Riolu nodded no, and tears began welling up in her eyes. Chrys sat next to his new pokémon, rubbing her back.

“I was completely helpless,” she sobbed. Chrys continued rubbing her back as Nurse Joy, Sunset, and the other pokémon watched with sad glances. Vulpix, who Chansey healed with a Softboil, was tearing up as well.

“Shoulda seen me when I was failing to run away from it. You handled yourself much better than I did, not to mention you weren’t at 100 percent,” Chrys said. “I think we could make a good team, you and I.” Riolu’s eyes widened. “We could improve ourselves together. I also wanna take down Chrysalis, and by your reaction to me, you do as well.”

“Who doesn’t want to take down Chrysalis. She’s a tyrannical mennace,” Riolu remarked, beginning to calm down a bit. “And besides, you caught me. I kinda have to go with you now.”

“That’s not true. I can release you if you don’t wanna come with me. It’s your choice,” Chrys said, eagerly waiting for her response.

“You know, I think I could use this experience. Is it okay with you Nurse Joy.” The mare in question giggled.

“I’m happy with whatever you decide, Riolu. I can handle things here with Chansey,” Joy replied with a smile and Chansey gave her a cheerful grin. Riolu nodded, sniffling and wiping her remaining tears away.

“Okay then... uh.”

“Chrys.”

“Chrys. I’ll go with you,” Riolu said, smiling.

“Thank you. This should be the beginning of one hell of a trip.”

“You can say that again,” Sunset said with a roll of her eyes, causing Riolu to giggle a bit and Vulpix to explode with laughter. “You really are way too easy.”

“We should get you patched up now,” Chrys said to Riolu, ignoring Sunset’s comments.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. Riolu got medical treatment for her wounds in her two battles that day and would be in one of the hospital rooms for a while. The rest of the gang got checked into their own rooms for the night. Chrys was standing in his room with a towel around his waist, since he had to get himself and his clothes washed. Nurse Joy had also promised him a new set of clothes, since one set of clothes was not going to be very useful if he would be traveling around the world for a good portion of his life now. A few minutes of pacing went by before someone knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Gallade,” the blade pokémon responded. Chrys walked over to the door and opened it. Gallade threw a backpack at him and left. Chrys briefly stared down the hallway before closing the door.

Dick, he thought to himself, picking up the bag and opened its main pouch, finding two new sets of clothes. Nurse Joy was polite enough to give him several undergarments, all black pairs of boxers, and he immediately put one of them on. Even though he was alone, he was still not comfortable without clothes on, especially in his new body. He was given a emerald green t-shirt and a plain white t-shirt, light gray sweatpants and brown sweatpants, and several pairs of socks. He put on the white t and light gray sweatpants, slipped on the socks, and looked at him in the mirror.

“I look like a fuckin’ drug dealer,” he said aloud. He walked away from the mirror and back to his new backpack, which was solid black. He began rummaging through other pouches to see if there was anything else inside. In the smaller pouch in front of the main one, was a emerald green winter cap. The hat had a hole in it for his horn to fit through, so he put it on and went back to the mirror.

Thank god the color isn’t black. Otherwise I’d really look like a drug dealer, he thought, taking the hat off as he remembered that it wasn’t cold outside. After putting that back in the bag, he opened one of the side pouches, and was surprised to find several pokéballs inside. He closed the pouch, as he didn’t need them at this moment in time, and went to the other side pouch. This pouch was empty so he closed it up and placed the bag at the door. He looked up to the clock, noticing that it was 7:30 at night. He blinked at that.

Holy shit. Wasn’t it just morning? Was I really in here that long? he thought as he moved to exit the room. Might as well see if the have dinn- oh wait I eat emotions. Shit. I really need to figure out how to do that. He decided to leave the room anyway, as he had nothing else better to do.

Chrys proceeded to walk down the hallway the way Gallade went, as it was towards the lobby, so he’d probably find Sunset there. Sure enough, Sunset was sitting in a booth in a dedicated cafeteria area, eating something while staring at a large TV screen. What was on the TV seemed to be a pokémon battle of some kind. Although he was curious, Chrys didn’t care too much about it, and he continued moving until he came into Sunset’s view.

“Yo,” she said, not taking her eyes off of the TV.

“What’re you watching?” Chrys asked, glancing back to the screen.

“It’s a gym battle,” she replied.

“They televise those?” he asked, sitting down in the booth.

“Yeah. It gives people a chance to study the gym leaders so they can come in with a full on strategy or a general game plan of some kind. I also find it very entertaining,” she explained.

“Cool. So what’s the league’s format here?”

“I assume you know the basics of how a Pokémon League works.” Chrys nodded.

“Yeah. Eight badges, huge tournament, Champions League,” he said.

“Basically, but I’ll go into further detail. So there are many gyms across the country, but, like you said, you only need eight badges to get into the Pokémon League,” she started. “The Pokémon League is being held in the Crystal Empire this year, and it has the Crystal Ponies scrambling to get things ready. Fortunat-,” Chrys cut her off.

“There are Crystal Ponies?” he asked baffled.

“Oh right, you aren’t from here. Yeah, they get that name mainly due to the fact that their coats have this gorgeous crystalline sheen to them, although I think their bones are also as hard as crystals or actual crystals, so that’s a thing,” she said.

“Quite the thing indeed,” Chrys stated, flabbergasted.

“Anyway,” Sunset continued, “They built several stadiums because they hosted the Equestria Games, so they don’t need to build more. They may have to reconfigure some of them and make battlefields on them, but they don’t have to do much construction past that.” Chrys blinked again, ignoring the question of ‘what’s the Equestria Games,’ and dismissed it as some sort of athletic competition.

“So if someone were to collect eight badges, they can compete in the league tournament?” he asked for clarification.

“Yup. Literally what I just said. Were you thinking of trying it out?” she asked. Chrys nodded.

“Yeah. It should be a hell of a lot of fun. Besides, what else am I doing after we get to the good changelings hive,” he said.

“True. I think they even have a gym there. It’s relatively new, though, so it would be a pretty good starting point.”

“How far away is the hive?”

“About a day or two by train.” Chrys blinked.

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah, and this town doesn’t have a train station, so here’s my plan.” She took out a map from her bag. “We’re here.” Sunset pointed to a forest in the western area of the map. “If we head southeast to Las Pegasus, we can catch a train straight to the Badlands, where the hive is located. We can probably get to LP in about a week or two by walking,” Sunset explained. Chrys sighed at the name of the city before making any comments.

“Well I don’t have any better ideas, so that sounds like a plan to me,” Chrys said, turning back to the TV, seeing a Gourgeist getting slammed down with a beam attack of some kind.

God I really wanna eat food. I’m starving, he thought for some reason, looking to what Sunset was eating. It seemed to be a soup of some kind, but he really couldn’t tell what it was exactly.

“I wanna try eating normal food,” Chrys blurted out.

“Um... why?” Sunset asked, tilting her head.

“I don’t know how to eat love Sunset. I have no clues as to how that would even work. If I try eating real food, maybe I’ll get luck and be able to get nourishment from it,” Chrys explained. Sunset threw him a coin after his rant.

“Get a donut or something,” she said, turning her attention back to her soup.

“Not the best form of nourishment, but okay.” Chrys got up and went to the counter. Upon approaching it, he saw a brown earth pony stallion with a short, brown mane and mustache working behind the counter. He was wearing a white apron and had a white chefs hat with a pokéball logo on it. The man, who was occupied with something else, turned to the changeling. He didn’t even bat an eyelash as he greeted Chrys.

“Hello sir, welcome to the PokéCafé. My name is Brooklyn T. Guy. How may I help you this evening?” said Brooklyn Guy in a very thick, stereotypical Brooklyn accent.

“Uh... yeah. Can I get a donut?” Chrys asked. Why the fuck is this guy’s name Brooklyn Guy? Is there a Brooklyn here? If so, I never want to find myself in it.

“I am going to need to know what kind of donut sir,” Brooklyn Guy responded.

“Um... chocolate?” Chrys said, still confused. Brooklyn Guy took the donut off of a wrack behind him and unceremoniously placed it on the counter with a napkin under it.

“That’ll be one bit sir.” Chrys flipped the coin on the counter and took his donut. “Very cool. Thank you for your service,” he said sarcastically, turning back to whatever he was doing before Chrys’ purchase.

Well he certainly acts like he’s from Brooklyn. I can’t fuckin’ stand the Islanders, Chrys thought, as he sat down in the booth. Sunset gave him a puzzled look.

“What was that about? He wasn’t like that with me,” she said. Chrys immediately knew the answer, face palming since he didn’t realize it sooner.

“He wasn’t scared about serving a changeling, obviously. But the reason he was an asshole to me is because he was annoyed that he had to. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?” Chrys said as he picked up the donut. “Welp, here goes nothing.” Chrys took a bit out of the donut, expecting either flavor or a fever. What he got as he chewed on the donut surprised him.

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean, ‘nothing?’” Sunset asked.

“I don’t taste anything. It tastes like nothing. Try it for me, just so we can clarify that it’s me and not the donut.” Chrys haned the donut to Sunset. She took a bite out of it and placed it back down.

“It’s you. That is definitely a chocolate donut, albeit a shitty one. Try this,” Sunset said, as she pulled a blue box-like item out of her pocket. She opened the box and took out a bar wrapped in white paper from it, which Chrys recognized as gum. Chrys heavily sighed as he took the gum. He opened the wrapper and popped the gum into his mouth, hoping for the best. Again, he was greeted with a taste of nothing, and he shook his head to let Sunset know what he was experiencing, spitting out the gum into the napkin he got with the donut.

Tasteless gum is the worst, he thought.

“Damn,” was all she said.

“I guess we have to assume that I absolutely need to eat love and stuff. How long can I go without food?” Chrys asked.

“About three weeks. Same as a human,” she replied.

“Okay. That means we can only take one week to get to Las Pegasus, catch the train, and go to the Badlands to have this Thorax guy teach me how to do the thing,” Chrys said, summing up there plan.

“Yup. We’ll need to go tomorrow. We don’t have any time to waste here. At least I know for a fact that you can drink water to keep hydrated and don’t have to drink emotions only,” Sunset said.

“Thank god. We should get a lot of that.”

“Yeah.” As Sunset said that, she saw a medical rollaway cart being rolled out by Nurse Joy. Sitting up on top of it was Riolu, who had bandages wrapped all over her body that made her look like a mummy.

“Jesus Christ. The damage was that bad,” Chrys stated, shocked.

“Yup. That Ursaring done fucked me up good,” Riolu responded, imitating a southern accent.

“Is she okay to even stand up?” Sunset asked.

“Yeah, but leave those bandages on for a couple days. Pokémon heal much faster than ponies, so she’ll be fine after that and they won’t need to be reapplied. No fighting though,” Joy said sternly.

“You got it Doc. But why didn’t you heal her with magic?” Chrys replied.

“Fighting type pokémon don’t have great reactions to magic. Their bodies receive them as a psychic type move, and they feel excruciating pain. I’d only ever use those methods on one if one of their bones was completely mangled, which they weren’t in Riolu’s case. The procedures also don’t work on dark types whatsoever, since they’re completely immune psychic type abilities ” Joy explained.

“That’s pretty interesting. What would they do to a pokémon such as Gallade?” Chrys responded. Riolu proceeded to get off of the rollaway and sat next to her new trainer.

“Good question. Gallade would be fine, since he has another type to counterbalance the magic so he wouldn’t feel pain, and it also doesn’t totally block it out. When Riolu evolves, she’ll be able to receive magical treatments, due to Lucario’s steel type characteristics,” Joy said. Chrys nodded in understanding.

“Thank you for everything Nurse Joy,” Sunset cut in.

“No problem. I assume you’ll be leaving tomorrow.”

“Yeah. If we don’t, I could die of hunger,” Chrys glumly stated. Riolu’s eyes shot up.

“Why!?!” she yelled, panicked. “I have to repay you for what you did for me! I can’t do that if you die!”

“Chill out. Firstly, you don’t need to repay me at all,” he said, petting Riolu’s head. “Secondly, it’s because I... don’t know how to eat. We’ll have to explain that to you since you were asleep when we were going over it with Joy.” So they did. They told Riolu everything they had told Nurse Joy about Chrys after Vulpix beat her. The canine’s jaw dropped after she heard everything.

“That’s a lot to take in,” she said, staring blankly at the table. Chrys continued to pet her head.

“We can dwell on that later. Right now, I need to get assloads of water bottles, my clothes, and some sleep.” Nurse Joy tossed him a plastic bag. He looked inside to find his Hunter Pence shirt, black pants, and a pair of socks. Something very important was missing however.

“Thanks, but where’s my underwear.”

“I had to throw them out,” Joy replied, a hand held over her face stifling her giggles.

“Why?” Chrys asked, dreading the highly probable answer.

“The stains wouldn’t come out.” At this, everyone burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter at the Newbloods expense. Chrys picked up Riolu, put her on the table, got out of the booth, and began walking away.

“Yo Stains, where do you think you’re going,” Sunset mocked, laughing as hard as she was capable of doing. Chrys just ignored it, and walked away, his dignity gone with his underpants.

Author's Note

Quite the shitty ending if I do say so myself.

...

No. Okay. I’ll go away now.

https://youtu.be/SQ9qi0Nxs04

Chapter 4: Moving Along

The next day, Chrys and Riolu were sleeping in the two beds in the room that Chrys was initially given. They were sleeping rather soundly until they heard a rapid pounding on the door. They both shot awake and looked at the clock on the side table in between the two beds.

“What do you want? It’s four in the morning,” Chrys groaned tiredly, trying not to disturb anyone that may potentially be sleeping in the neighboring rooms.

“It’s Sunset. Open up,” she commanded. Chrys got up and opened the door, an angry, tired glare on his face.

“What?” he asked sternly.

“I wanted to get going before anybody else in town wakes up. This way we can avoid stirring up an angry mob,” she explained. She was completely dressed and ready to go. She had different clothes on from the previous day, which consisted of a light blue shirt, jeans, and a black jacket with orange stripes near the shoulder area. She did have the same black boots on though, which relieved Chrys. It, for some reason, gave him the impression that she didn’t care about having multiple pairs like some of the women in his previous life that he got the ‘pleasure’ of going shoe shopping with. She also had her backpack slung over one shoulder. Her Vulpix was standing right behind her and Gallade was presumably in his pokéball.

“Whatever. Let me change and we’ll go,” Chrys said, grabbing a change of clothes and turning to the bathroom. Chrys came out of the bathroom wearing the green shirt and brown pants he had been given by Gallade the previous day.

“Uh...,” Riolu said, eying the outfit. The other two in the room also gave him bewildered looks.

“Yes. I know I look like a tree. Can we get out of here now?” he asked impatiently.

“Yeah. Lets get going.”

The group leaft the Pokémon Center through the massive hole that Ursaring made the previous day so they wouldn’t make noise with the door. There were many houses nearby and while the door wasn’t loud, they didn’t want to take any chances. Once they exited the building, the made their way to the entrance to the forest that would lead them to Las Pegasus. They all followed Sunset into the forest as they metaphorically said their goodbyes to the little village, Chrys literally flipping it off. They walked for thirty more minutes in silence, being careful so they wouldn’t wake up something like the Ursaring. It was after that thirty minutes that Sunset broke the silence.

“So, do you plan on catching more pokémon in the forest, or are you gonna wait until we’re out?” she asked Chrys. Chrys shrugged.

“It depends. I should probably catch another one ASAP so I can get acclimated with it before I take on the gym. I’m definitely going to need more than one pokémon for a gym battle,” he explained. An important question about the gym popped into his mind. “What type of pokémon does the gym use?”

Sunset scratched her chin. “It’s one of the newer gyms, so I’m not 100 percent certain on this, but if I had to take an educated guess, I’d say bug,” she said.

“Go figure,” Chrys deadpanned.

“Yeah, it seems like a pretty obvious conclusion.”

“Also a racist one,” Riolu chimed in, jumping on Chrys’ shoulder. He gave her an annoyed glance. “Sorry, I’m tired,” she said. Chrys just sighed.

“I’d look offended, but you’re absolutely right. But then again, I’m also absolutely right,” Sunset said with confidence, however she was scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

“It is a very reasonable conclusion,” Riolu said, nestling her head in Chrys’ neck.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I got like three hours of sleep. Sue me,” she said, her jaw opening widely as she yawned.

“Then you should go back in your ball,” Sunset suggested. Riolu vehemently shook her head.

“I’d prefer it if I didn’t go back in there unless I’m severely injured and it gets me to a Pokémon Center faster. It’s cramped as fuck in that thing,” Riolu said affirmatively.

Vulpix shook her head as if to say, ‘It’s not that bad.’

“Fine by me. I can get you a big, brown bag from Trader Joe’s and carry you in that instead,” Chrys joked. He was the only one laughing as Trader Joe’s was probably not something that existed in Equestria nor any other country on the planet for that matter.

“I got no clue who this ‘Trader Joe’ is, but he sounds like a dick,” Riolu said, raising a few chuckles from the group.

“These have been the worst few days of my life,” Chrys complained, lightly banging his head against a tree.

It was three days since they left Kokiri Village and nothing had happened. They walked, ate, walked, ate, and walked some more for four straight days. Currently they were eating dinner on the fifth day sans Chrys, who was downing several bottles of water to try and sustain himself; an effort which has been semi-successful so far. Miraculously, the group did not find a single pokémon in the forest so far, which irked Riolu to no end since she was out of the mummy-like bandages that had handicapped her for what felt like years to her. It was Riolu that finally broke their silence.

“I need to kick something’s ass,” she blurted out, causing Chrys to perform a picture perfect spit take right into Sunset’s face, cracking up at the random remark. The unicorn just blinked a couple of times before sighing and wiping her face off with a napkin.

“Well I’d love to ‘kick something’s ass,’ but we haven’t seen anything for days,” Chrys replied, finishing the last bottle of water he was going to have for lunch.

“Well sor-ry, but I’m pent up,” she said, standing up and throwing a few punches for emphasis.

“There are plenty of other things you can do to rectify that situation,” Chrys commented, causing Sunset to do a spit take into the changelings face this time. Chrys blinked and wiped his face with a napkin. “Okay, I deserved that.” This made Gallade chuckle a bit and Vulpix explode in laughter. They all ignored the fire fox since this was becoming quite the normal occurrence.

“Whatever man. I just wanna fight something. I’m getting stiff,” Riolu replied, cracking her neck.

“Gallade and I are the only ones here who can get stiff,” Chrys joked, causing everyone but Vulpix to face palm. Vulpix was, of course, laughing hysterically in front of the campfire. “All kidding aside, we have to find something first.”

“Yeah,” Sunset said. “It isn’t like something’s just gonna land on our heads.” With that comment, Sunset began to hear a buzz. She sighed, Riolu put on a maniacal grin, and the rest of the gang slouched at the cliche irony of the situation. “What’s on my head?”

“It’s a Cutiefly. What the hell is it doing up this late?” Chrys asked no one in particular.

“Good question. Usually they’re out in the daytime,” Sunset said. The Cutiefly was resting on the unicorn’s head, a happy look on its face, even though it doesn’t have a mouth. Riolu started bouncing in place like a boxer.

“Sunset, you better get that thing off your head or I’m gonna beat you to smithereens along with it,” Riolu said anxiously.

“C’mon. It’s resting,” Chrys said. “And you do realize you’re at a disadvantage, right?”

“I don’t see how that matters,” Riolu replied. “I just wanna smack a bitch.” Chrys sighed.

“Give me a sec.” He went over to the Cutiefly, who was still smiling with its eyes, and put his finger next to it. Getting the message, it climed on and faced the changeling, who smiled. “You wanna kick my friends ass?” He asked.

“Hey!”

The Cutiefly pondered on it for a second, looking back and forth between Riolu and Chrys. It ultimately nodded and flew off of Chrys’ finger into the middle of the path they were on.

“Okay, lets get this going,” he declared.

“Riolu, use Focus Punch!”

The canine lunged at the Cutiefly, winding up her fist. The bug/fairy type flew to the side at the last second to dodge the blow. Cutiefly then turned to face Riolu and let loose a barrage of blasts at Riolu, hitting her directly.

“That was Struggle Bug,” Sunset said, facing her pokémon. “I wonder how he’ll handle this. Riolu won’t be able to get close that easily.” The two pokémon next to her nodded. Chrys took all of three seconds to shout his next command.

“Blaze Kick!”

Riolu jumped up at Cutiefly, lighting up her leg and kicking at the fly when she got close enough. Again, Cutiefly dodged it and flew higher up to stay out of reach. When Riolu landed, she acted on her own. She bent her legs much more and sprung them upwards, jumping up much higher than before. She held out her palm and it crackled with electric sparks. Once again the Cutiefly dodged, this time to its right, and fired a a Stuggle Bug at her again, sending her towards the ground.

That was Force Palm, Chrys thought, as Riolu got back up. “I appreciate you showing me that, but let me do the thinking.” Riolu nodded and faced her opponent yet again.

This time, Cutiefly took charge, stirring up wind with its wings, causing Riolu to fly back, but she used the momentum the attack gave her to backflip and landed on her feet. Chrys identified the attack to be Fairy Wind and reacted accordingly.

“Quick Attack!” he commanded. Riolu obliged, speeding towards her opponent. The Cutiefly was quick to dodge the attack, flying very high up to avoid it. This made Riolu head straight for a tree, giving Chrys an idea.

“Put your feet in front of you!” he shouted. Riolu quickly righted herself so her feet would hit the tree before anything else on her would. Once she hit the tree, she pushed off of it, using her momentum to jump straight above the Cutiefly, who stared stunned.

“Blaze Kick!”

Riolu somersaulted forward to increse the force of her attack, lighting her leg ablaze again. She then slammed her entire foot over the length of Cutiefly’s body, making the bee fly pokémon begin hurdling towards the ground at full speed. This is when Chrys took action. He grabbed a pokéball out of his pocket and launched it at where Cutiefly was going to land. The ball met the pokémon right before it made contact with the ground, opening up and sucking it in. The ball closed and landed softly on the grass and began to shake, the button on it blinking a bright red color. It shook several times before the button transitioned completely back to white with a click. Just like that, Chrys had caught his second pokémon.

“That went rather smoothly,” Chrys said, walking over to the ball to pick it up.

“Smoothly?!? That didn’t just go smoothly. It was the easiest capture I’ve ever seen happen in my time as a trainer!” Sunset said, mouth agape.

“You have two pokémon Sunset, and you didn’t have to battle either of them. That’s easy,” Chrys explained causing Sunset to make an ‘o’ shape with her mouth.

“It ended way to quickly though,” Riolu pouted with her arms folded.

“Well I didn’t tell you to spin before you kicked it. That fall could’ve severely damaged it. You’re lucky I threw that ball more accurately than Bumgarner on a good day,” Chrys said, pounding his chest proudly.

“I have no idea who this ‘Bumgarner’ is, but a pokéball has a mechanism that helps guide it towards a pokémon. Of course you need to throw it relatively accurately, but the pokéball does most of the work. I guess it’s comparable to a magnet,” Sunset explained.

“Oh. Thank you for ruining my single greatest achievement,” Chrys said glumly.

“The capture or the throw?” Sunset asked.

“The throw,” he replied. “Definitely the throw.” Sunset sighed and looked to the pokéball in his hand.

“Why don’t you send it out and let it formally meet everyone,” she suggested.

“Sure, why not?” he said as he threw the pokéball a couple of feet into the air, releasing his new Cutiefly. Cutiefly looked exhausted. It had several scratches and bruises along its short body. As it slowly drifted towards the ground, Chrys put out his hand to catch it. He turned his attention back to Sunset. “Do you have a potion or something like that?”

“As a matter of fact,” she said, rummaging through her mess of a bag, “I do.” She pulled out a small purple spray bottle that look like a big glob of moisturizer. She tossed it over to the changeling and he caught it with ease. He turned back to Cutiefly, resting it on the ground.

“This may sting a bit, although I’m not really sure since I’m new to this.” He sprayed the medicine onto Cutiefly, the bug cringed for a second before relaxing as the spray stopped coming. It flew up to Chrys’ shoulder and rested on it, falling straight to sleep in the process.

“I am now very glad you caught that thing. Isn’t it just the cutest thing?” Sunset asked, a stupid grin on her face.

“Cutie is literally in its name. Besides, its speed is incredible. Riolu is not a slow pokémon and she wasn’t connecting most of her attacks.”

“Yeah. She’s unbelievably fast. She wasn’t all that weak either,” Riolu remarked.

“Wait a sec, she? How can you possibly tell that?” Chrys asked. Riolu shrugged.

“It’s much easier for a pokémon to tell the difference between male and female pokémon,” she explained. “I can just tell.”

“Well that’s nice to know. I suppose I should try to catch another one pretty soon. Three is a good number to start out with,” Chrys said.

“Yeah. Most gym leaders do three v three battles, but I have heard of some funky gym rules before,” Sunset replied.

“Like what?”

“Well I heard of a gym that does a double battle and gyms that allow the challenger to use all of their pokémon while they only use a few,” she explained. “I’ve also heard that the most challenging gym is in Canterlot. They have their challengers use only three pokémon while the gym leader uses two at a time and has six pokémon with them or something to that effect. I believe only one person has completed that gyms challenge, and it’s the current champion.”

“Good lord. The gym leader must do it to truly challenge trainers. We will definitely have to try that at some point. Make it two people who’ve completed that gym,” Chrys said excitedly. I’m starting to enjoy this predicament I’m in. It’s every pokémon fans dream to do this for real, he thought.

“It would be really damn cool if we were able to pull that one off. You seem to be a pretty capable trainer so far. Maybe we’d stand a decent chance one day,” Riolu complemented.

“Thanks,” he knelt down and pet Riolu’s head. She smiled and her tailed viciously wagged, telling Chrys that he found her favorite spot.

“We should really follow Cutiefly’s example. We wanna get to Veg-Pegasus soon and catch that train,” Chrys said, laying down next to a tree.

“Agreed, goodnight,” Sunset said.

“Night,” Chrys replied.

Author's Note

Cutiefly Information in case anybody doesn’t know much about it. I tried to make it as accurate to the thing as I could. And I made that shit about the pokéball up. I have no idea how they work but feel like that is a reasonable explanation for why it gets there evey time. Ash is no superstar MLB pitcher like Bumgarner. Someone like Mad Bum wouldn’t need such a mechanism. I also don’t know if I ever gave a clothing description for Sunset until now and I’m too lazy to check so correct me if I’m wrong.

https://youtu.be/OEKySXm1J2M

Chapter 5: Las Pegasus

“Good lord that took way too long,” Chrys whined as they exited the forest. The group could see the city in the near distance

“I couldn’t agree more,” Riolu concurred, collapsing on the ground for dramatic effect.

“Quit whining you morons. It was a week, max,” Sunset deadpanned. Riolu got up at this and hopped onto Chrys’ back, using his backpack to rest her legs while her head was on his shoulder.

“One week too many. And I’m literally starving to death so we better catch that train really damn quick,” Chrys groaned, slumped over. Sunset shook her head.

“The train doesn’t get here for two more days. You’re gonna have to tough it out,” she explained.

This caused Chrys to smack his head with his hand and groan louder. “This is gonna suck enormous gorilla dick. Just like Assassin’s Creed.” He couldn’t help himself from a small chuckle at that.

“Ugh,” Sunset sighed, ignoring them for the rest of the walk to the city in the distance.

It took them about ten minutes to walk to the outskirts of the gambling capital of Equestria. Chrys, Riolu, and Vulpix gaped at the sight. The city was full of vibrant colors, ponies and the like walking down the streets either piss drunk or hungover in the middle of the day. The air reeked of alcohol and fluids of the bedroom variety. Chrys smiled.

It’s exactly how I always dreamed, Chrys thought sarcastically. He also realized something a little too late. All across the block they were walking down, he was getting glares. Some were angry, some were confused, but most were fearful. Sunset also noticed this and went into a panic. She grabbed Chrys by the arm and dragged him into the nearest alleyway. Her breathing was heavy and panicked.

“What are we going to do!?!” Sunset whisper-yelled. “If you get caught then you will no doubt be arrested,” she explained.

“Okay that makes sense. Why are you so afraid then?” he asked.

“Because I’ll be arrested for treason if I’m seen with you! I cannot believe we overlooked something so damn important.” She resumed her heavy breathing when she finished. This made Riolu hop off of Chrys’ shoulder and smack Sunset upside the head.

“Calm. Down. Losing your shit isn’t gonna help us.” She snapped her head to Chrys. “You got a horn on your head bud. Use it,” she commanded.

“I can’t. I just got this body,” he told her. Riolu’s mouth moved into an ‘o’ shape. “And even if I could I have no energy to do it with.”

“Well you need to try or were doomed,” Sunset said, checking the entrance to the alley to make sure nobody followed them. When she confirmed the coast was clear, she turned back to everyone. “Just feel deep inside you for any magic that’s there. Focus that feeling into your horn and picture something to transform into, preferably something small. That way you’ll use less energy to transform. Think of a small pokemon,” she explained.

Chrys stared at his companion stunned at her piss poor attempt at giving him a 30 second crash course on the highly complicated subject. He just shook his head and sighed, beginning his first attempt at magic. Just like he was told, he felt deep inside him to try and find an unfamiliar presence. After several minutes he let go of a breath he had no clue he was holding.

“Nothing,” he said. Sunset grabbed his shoulders and violently shook him.

“Try. Harder,” she demanded, her eyes manic. Chrys simply nodded and closed his eyes again.

He did what he thought the ‘feeling’ that Sunset mentioned was. He felt around his body until he reached his core. It was here where he felt a part of him that was significantly warmer than the rest of his essence. Without a word, he gripped at the feeling and shot it up towards his head. His horn began to lite up in a sickly green hue, making the rest of the group smile widely. He then pictured a plethora of small pokémon. He scrolled through his memory until he found a suitable pokémon to transform into. Once he decided, he forced his energy outwards from his horn, causing his body to burst into emerald flames. To his great surprise, he didn’t feel any significant increase in heat coming from them. Once he figured the spell was completed, he opened his eyes.

When he did this, he was greeted with the eyes of his Riolu staring straight at him. He noted that she wasn’t looking up so this told him he’d succeeded. Cutiefly’s pokéball also fell to the ground and was next to his bag; another sign he was successful. He also noticed he was on four legs, which was exactly what he wanted. Sunset was the first who spoke.

“Interesting choice. Poochyena wouldn’t be my first choice if I could be a pokémon,” she commented.

“It was easy enough to do. Besides. I think it’s a cool pokémon,” he replied.

“Well you did a really good job. It looks exactly like a normal Poochyena, although you shouldn’t speak. That’ll give you right away,” she added.

“Agreed.”

Sunset picked up Chrys’ things and the gang walked out of the alley from the opposite side of where they entered it, Chrys frequently stumbling trying to get used to walking on four legs. After several more falls, Sunset lifted him onto her head.

“Hold on tight. We’ll head to the Pokémon Center and settle into a room,” she said. Everyone nodded in agreement at the plan and Sunset kept walking, Riolu and Vulpix following close behind.

Several minutes passed and Chrys started to stare stunned at the sites they were passing, devising that they had reached the strip. He looked around further and saw the massive Pokémon Center right where T-Mobile Arena would be in Vegas.

“Holy crap,” he said quietly, in awe of the huge center. “Why is that so big?”

“It doubles as an actual hotel. This is one of the top cities to tour in the country, and even though it’s free for trainers to go there overnight, a lot of regular ponies use it as a hotel ‘cause it’s cheaper in general. The company makes a ton of extra money doing that. It’s a pokémon hospital, but it’s also a business, and this is a very profitable location for them,” Sunset explained.

“Yeah. Nurse Joy told me that a while back,” Riolu chimed in. “They call them Pokémon SuperCenters. They have one in almost every tourist heavy.”

“Could they have been less creative,” Chrys sighed.

“Probably not. They have these in Manehatten and Baltimare as well,” Sunset added.

Are you kidding me? Manehatten? Baltimare? My head is gonna explode if I keep hearing dumb pony puns in city names, Chrys thought as Sunset walked up to the automatic doors of the building.

Once they entered, they were greeted with quite the site. Firstly, there were ponies scattered all over the place, most of which in the several different restaurants visible left of the entrance to the lobby and elevators near them, presumably leading to the upper floors with the hotel rooms. There was also the standard Pokémon Center setup in the middle with all the actual hospital rooms behind the front desk and café area. A pharmacy was also to the right of the entrance. Chrys leaned towards Sunset’s ear again.

“Is that a PokéMart?” he asked, pointing his Poochyena paw at the pharmacy.

“Yeah. They’re usually separate buildings but in SuperCenters they’re combined. Same company and all,” she explained, walking to the front desk, where they were greeted with the familiar smile of a Nurse Joy and a Chansey to her right.

“Welcome to the Las Pegasus Pokémon Center! How may I help you?” she asked. Sunset smiled back.

“We need a room for the next two days,” she said. Nurse Joy turned to a computer to check for openings. Once she had found one, she punch the keyboard a little and a keycard came out from a card printer next to the computer.

“Okay you’re all set. Your room number 1124 on the eleventh floor. Have a good day!” Joy said, handing Sunset the keycard.

“You too,” she replied, heading to the elevators.

“That was simple enough,” Riolu commented. Vulpix and Sunset simply nodded and the latter pressed the button to summon one of the the elevators. Chrys was too focused on holding the transformation as he had no clue how much longer he could keep it going.

“I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out,” he quietly vocalized. Sunset grabbed a hold of him and began to gently pet him to calm him down.

“Just a little longer buddy, relax. You’ve been great,” she said like she was talking to a baby, much to Chrys’ annoyance even though he was actually enjoying the petting, something he would furiously deny. He also had a tingly feeling running through his body that made the transformation a little easier to hold.

Once the elevator arrived, they waited for eveyone already on it to get off and then quickly slipped on it themselves along with a few other ponies, which worried them because they weren’t sure how much longer Chrys could hold the transformation for. Sunset pressed the button for the eleventh floor and stood in the back of the elevator.

“Mommy look!” Sunset and the rest of the gang looked at the source of the noise. It was a young girl, no older than six or seven years old. She was looking up to a mare, seemingly in her late twenties.

“What is it sweetie?” the mare asked. Upon that question, the kid went to the panel on the elevator and pressed every single button. The changeling turned Poochyena’s eyes lit up in horror along with the fiery manned mare holding him.

Fuck, they both thought.

After several painfully long minutes, and several apologies from the mother, everyone got off at the eleventh floor. Chrys’ face was contorted in pain trying to hold his Poochyena transformation.

“Is your Poochyena okay?” the mare asked.

“He has indigestion,” Sunset blurted out. “We just need to get to out room and I can give him his medicine.” With that, the mare and her daughter took off and Sunset looked to the signs on the wall to find their room. She saw a sign that read ‘1120-1155” to the left of them.

“This way,” she said to the pokémon standing next to her. They both followed while Chrys jumped out of Sunset’s grip and ran to find the room, which was one of the first few, so the fact that he stumbled a bit due to his quadrupedal form didn’t matter as much.

Sunset giggled a bit and stuck the keycard into the lock and opened the door. Chrys was the first in the room and upon his diving entry he let go of the transformation. Sunset, Vulpix, and Riolu followed him in and Riolu closed the door.

“Jeez man, relax,” Riolu said, patting her trainer on the back.

“Kids are fuckin’ stupid. It’s just an elevator. How has she not seen one,” Chrys groaned sarcastically.

“The train gets here in two days,” Sunset reminded them, ignoring his comments. “I’ll get the tickets in about an hour or so and we can get you all situated.”

“Yeah. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do that transformation for again so I’m not gonna go with you,” Chrys explained, Sunset nodding in understanding. “Besides, I wanna get to know Cutiefly better.”

Chrys took the ball back from Sunset and opened it up. The pokémon exited the ball and looked around to get her bearings. Once she did, she flew to the TV stand in front of the two beds and sat down. She looked to Sunset and Chrys with that happy look she had when they first met.

“She seems comfortable,” Riolu remarked as she made her way over to the chair in the corner. On e she sat down on it, she looked to the clock. “Hand me the remote. ‘The Price Is Right’ is almost on,” she said.

They have that here? Chrys thought. I wonder if they have ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy.’ Oh and fuckin ‘Family Feud.’ Mah boi Steeeeve.

Sunset found the remote next to Cutiefly on the stand and tossed it to Riolu, who turned on the TV. Surely enough, it was the same setup of ‘The Price Is Right’ with the same overly enthusiastic contestants and audience members. The host even looked like somebody stuck Drew Carey in a ponifier machine of sorts.

“You guys do this while I go downstairs and do some much needed shopping,” Sunset said. “I’ll be back in about an hour.” Everyone nodded. “C’mon Vulpix,” she commanded. The fox followed her trainer happily to the elevator that almost screwed them all.

Once she was gone, Chrys and Riolu got sucked into the show and Cutiefly eventually moved over to the changeling to rest on his head. They were guessing prices of the items shown and making worthless bets on each of them as well.

This is great, Chrys thought. This is the most normal time I’ve had since getting here. Hopefully I can make it to that Thorax guy in time before I starve to death and can keep doing things like this. He took his Cutiefly off of his head and began to pet it. She gave him the same happy look she usually had. They both then turned back to ‘The Price Is Right’ intent on having a relaxing afternoon.

After the plan was devised, Sunset left the room in order to do all the shopping that she needed to. She went to the elevator and headed down to the lobby, where she would be able to pick up all the necessary items for the pokémon the two trainers had.

When she arrived at the lobby, she went to the PokéMart to grab pokémon food, medicine, bandages, and a bunch of other medical supplies that they would potentially need in the future. Once she collected all of her items she went to the counter to purchase everything.

“Oh yeah! 30 pokéballs please,” Sunset remembered. Half for him, half for me. He’s right. I definitely do need more pokémon if I wanna beat down Chrysalis and her slave drivers, she thought as the cashier rung up her purchases. The two ponies exchanged pleasantries before Sunset re-entered the lobby to leave the SuperCenter.

Once she was outside, she began walking down the streets of Las Pegasus looking for a normal supermarket. She had already purchased pokémon food for everyone, but now she needed to buy food for herself and more water bottles for Chrys to gorge himself on. As she continued across the street, she noticed a large sign on the front of a building that read ‘King Kullen’ figuring out that she had found her destination.

“Vulpix, hang onto me,” she told her partner. Vulpix did just that and Sunset teleported to the front of the building the instant later.

“Ahh!” When Sunset reappeared, she did so right in front of an unfortunate mare who dropped to the ground. In a panic, Sunset turned to the mare in question, who wasn’t a mare at all. Who she’d bumped into was a deep red dragoness. This caused Sunset to panic even more as she scrambled to her feet.

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention,” Sunset apologized, offering the mare a hand. The mare gladly took it and helped pull herself up.

“It’s not a prob- Sunset!?!” the dragoness shouted, taking Sunset by surprise by pulling her into a hug.

“Ruby!?!” Sunset returned the embrace once she realized who it was. “I barely recognize you. I haven’t seen you since I first moved to Vanhoover.”

“I know! It’s been way to long. How’ve ya been?” Ruby asked.

“Fine. How about you?”

“Never better,” Ruby replied with a bright smile. She was covered in red scales except for her the spikes on her head and the tip of her tail, which were black. Her eyes were as red as her scales, one eye having a scar running over it. She wore a charcoal gray T-Shirt that read ‘Have A Good Day’ on it and jean shorts with a hole in the back so her tail could move freely. A glaring feature of the dragon was that she only had one wing. The other wing was completely gone without a trace. “What are you doing here?” Ruby asked.

“Uh...” Sunset stammered, thinking of an excuse that had nothing to do with the changeling she was harboring. “I’m just passing through?” She asked more than said. Fortunately for her, Ruby didn’t pick up on it as she brushed herself off from the fall.

“Where are you headed?” she pressed. Sunset thought of another lie to get her out of the previous lie. “I’m going to... uh... Canterlot. Yeah. That one,” she replied with a nervous laugh. This technically wasn’t a lie as Chrys wanted to try out the crazy gym there at some point, but that wouldn’t be for months. This time Ruby noticed the verbal barf that Sunset spewed out of her mouth and gave her a concerned look.

“You okay Sunset? You look like you’re gonna faint,” she commented. Sunset furiously nodded.

“Yeah I’m fine! Why would you ever think I’m not fine? I’m gonna go into the store now! Bye!” With that, Sunset ran off and her Vulpix closely followed, leaving a very confused and suspicious Ruby outside of the King Kullen.

“She’s probably staying there so I’ll catch up with her when she gets back,” she said with a shrug ad she headed for the Pokémon Center a little farther down the block.

Holy crap that was close, Sunset thought for the hundredth time as she was wrapping up her grocery shopping. Vulpix noticed her mild distress and nuzzled Sunset’s leg. The mare smiled.

“Thanks Vulpix. I shouldn’t worry about it too much. Just need to focus on getting the train tickets and getting back to the others with this stuff,” Sunset said, starting to walk out of the store with the bags, avoiding teleportation to prevent the previous situation from occurring again.

As Sunset and Vulpix were walking down the street, they looked around to see all the sights Las Pegasus had to offer. They both stared at the various landmarks on there way back to the Pokémon Center. While this was happening, Sunset noticed that she was falling to the ground for some reason. She quickly put her hands out in front of her to prevent her from face planting on the concrete. Vulpix rushed over to her lick her face to attempt to heal any pontential injuries.

“Ow! Watch where you’re going lady,” said a young female voice. Sunset turned around to see who she bumped into. All she got was the back of a teenage mare wearing a black hoodie and skinny jeans picking up her backpack that had fallen off in the collision somehow. The mare had light pink wings protruding from her hoodie neatly folded against the mares back, making Sunset assume she was a pegasus. However, when she looked at her more closely, she saw a long horn protruding from her head suggested otherwise. Sunset’s jaw dropped.

“You’re Princess Flurry Heart,” Sunset said stunned.

“Oh shit,” the mare said, noticing that Sunset saw her wings since her bag was off. Before Sunset could say a word to her, the alicorn teleported away, leaving Sunset very confused.

“Did you see that Vulpix?” Sunset asked, still staring at where the highly likely princess used to be. Vulpix nodded dumbly.

“Name somethin’ a burglar would not want to see when he breaks into a house?” said the pony version of Steve Harvey hosting the pony version of Family Fued. The Price Is Right had been over for a while and the three occupants of the hotel room had begun watching other game shows. The stallion on the right of the screen smacked the buzzer.

“NEKKID GRAMMAW!” he shouted out, causing Riolu, and Cutiefly to burst out into hysterical laughter.

Wow. This really is a completely parallel universe. That one is now just cringey now because it’s a deaded meme, Chrys thought as he looked over to his two pokémon. Cutiefly had moved to sit on top of Riolu’s head and the both of them were laughing at the following quips pony Steve Harvey was shooting at the moron who made the comment, laughing even harder when the answer counted. When he turned away from his pokémon, Chrys looked took the clock to check the time.

“Where the hell is Sunset? It’s been three hours,” Chrys said, looking at the clock.

“Why does it matter?,” Riolu asked. The changeling shrugged.

“I don’t know. She’s jus-“ he was cut off by the door slamming open to reveal the mare in question with a panicked expression plain for all to see on her face. Her breathing why heavy and her face was caked in a nervous sweat.

“God damn, what happened to you?” Riolu asked, hopping off the chair she was in and walking up to Chrys, who got up off the edge of the bed.

“Yeah. You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he commented.

“No. It’s way worse,” she replied, lightly panting.

“What could be worse than something like a Gengar? That thing is basically the result if a pokémon where to breed with a child molester,” Chrys joked. This got the usual hysterical laughter from Vulpix and a glare from Sunset.

“How about a princess of Equestria?” Sunset angrily asked. This caused the few who didn’t see the hooded alicorn to blink a few times.

“I’m sorry, a what!?!” Chrys asked in shock. Why is this country’s government a fucking monarchy!?! What is this, 1650!?! His eyes widened in even further realization.

“Exactly,” Sunset chimed in. “Well technically it’s not Equestria, It’s The Crystal Empire, but that’s besides the point. If she finds you, we’re doomed. You need to hold that Poochyena transformation for the rest of the day and until the train comes here tomorrow or we’re boned!”

Upon that remark, Chrys closed his eyes and focused on the transformation yet again, this time getting it done far quicker. He opened his eyes and looked up to Sunset.

“Are you better now? Having no energy and doing this sucks ass so I need everyone to be calm so I can focus,” Sunset nodded. “Great. Let me practice walking and we can get shit to eat... or drink in my case.” The group all nodded in agreement and gave Chrys the time he needed to perfect the art of quadrupedal movement. It took him a good 25 minutes or so, but he managed to get it after muttering something to himself to stich the rhythm into his subconscious so he would just walk after a while .

Once he was moving fluidly, Chrys and the rest of his posse headed down to the lobby. Once they were there, they all headed to the cafe area in the middle of it, Sunset explaining that all those restaurants either sucked or were way too expensive for her. They got to a table near long concessions stand and settled in. Chrys sat on the floor next to Sunset, who sat in the booth so he could quietly speak to her so he wouldn’t be found out. She sent out Gallade who sat in the next to her, Riolu sat on the other side, Cutiefly rested on her head and Vulpix hopped over Chrys to sit in Sunset’s lap.

“Wait a sec. This is so dumb!” Chrys realized. “If I accidentally drop the transformation here we’re done for.” Sunset lightly elbowed him. This confused Chrys but he knew it meant he needed to be quiet. He looked up to Sunset, only to see a horrified look on her face. Looking in the direction she was, his faced contorted to the unicorn’s same expression. There was a dragon running towards them, with red scales and a charcoal gray T-Shirt with a man’s face in the middle that read ‘Have A Good Day’ over it, headed straigth towards them, waving at Sunset. Two glaring features were the lack of a wing and the scar over her eye, but that’s not what Chrys noticed.

Holy shit! That’s a pony LA Beast shirt! Chrys thought, laughing to himself.

“Hey, Sunset!” Ruby called, running right to the booth, sitting herself next to Riolu, the pokémon none to pleased by this. When she turned to face the dragoness though, her eyes lit up in surprise.

“Holy crap! Those babushkas are bigger than my head, they’re incredible,” Riolu thought aloud, immediately regretting it and blushing furiously. This made Vulpix, Gallade, and Chrys to explode in laughter and for Sunset to slam her head on the table. Ruby looked around in shock.

“Who said that?” she asked nobody in particular, not seeming to be disturbed by the comment. Riolu tapped Ruby’s leg, and when she turned to face the pokémon, Riolu raised her paw.

“Hi,” she said sheepishly, causing Ruby to raise her eyes in shock.

“Isn’t that telepathy? That’s so awesome!” she commented. Riolu nodded to confirm her assumption, turning away in embarrassment. “Aww. It’s okay. Do you like my boobies?” Everyone’s eyes shot up in surprise at the question. They shot up even further when Riolu nodded. The dragoness gently picked Riolu up and placed her on her lap. The emanation pokémon was surprised by this, and blushed even more than before. Cutiefly moved to her trainers head now to give her friend some space, still looking happy as ever.

So Riolu’s into other women? Good for her, Chrys thought with a smile. He also flet a little tingle like the one he felt in the elevator this morning. What the hell is that? he thought. He looked to the dragoness named Ruby. She began to pet Riolu, who forgot all about the previous embarrassment and absolutely melted at the expert touch. There was a short silence that Sunset broke.

“I didn’t think you’d be the type to let pokémon... do that,” Sunset said, pointing at Riolu, who was getting grabby.

“I’m no stranger to things like this with pokémon,” she explained. Sunset went into mild shock after the comment, her face looking like she’d seen a ghost. The rest tried their best to ignore it. “What’s wrong with that? They’re sentient beings. Besides, some of them are better than ponies are at it.”

Please shut up, Chrys silently begged.

“It’s not illegal!” Ruby shouted, noticing the looks she was getting.

None of us care if it’s legal or not! We just don’t wanna hear about your sexual escapades lady! Chrys thought with a disgruntled look. Cutiefly saw this look, so she flew up in front of Ruby and spelled out ‘TMI’ with some pollen dust. This is the greatest pokémon that I have ever seen.

“Oh. Sorry,” she put a hand to the back of her head, laughing. “I can get a little too personal sometimes.”

A little? Chrys thought. Ruby quickly spoke again.

“I didn’t know you had this many pokémon Sunny. Why weren’t they with you at the King Kullen earlier?” she asked, effectively changing the subject, something everyone appreciated. This caused Sunset to break out of her stupor.

“The three of them we’re relaxing in our room, sans Gallade who was in his ball when we bumped into each other,” Sunset explained. She wasn’t technically lying. She just left out the important detail of the changeling on the floor next to her.

“Oh!” Ruby looked to the floor, seeing the Poochyena. “I just noticed him. Come here little buddy,” she said to him. Chrys didn’t move, worried his disguise would drop. Sunset helped him out.

“He just hatched recently. He isn’t used to other ponies yet,” she lied with a nervous laugh. Ruby’s eyes lit up.

“He’s just a baby!?! We should totally have a battle then! It would give him some good experience.” Everyone’s jaws fell at that except for Riolu, who was to busy nuzzling Ruby’s bosom.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Sunset responded, a nervous sweat running down her face.

“Oh don’t worry about it. We’ll go easy on him,” Ruby responded.

“He’s just so young. I don’t think he’s ready yet,” Sunset stammered.

“That’s how pokémon get better, Sunset! They battle,” Ruby exclaimed. “C’mon pleeeaasse.”

“Okay fine!” Sunset shouted. This caused Chrys to jump up from his location on the floor to about 15 feet in the air and land stalk still on the spot of the floor where he shot up from. Sunset saw this and attempted to calm him down. “It’ll be fine. Just do what I say.”

THAT DOESN’T HELP ME!!!, he thought in a panic, giving Sunset a manic expression.

“Alright! I’ll be out by the battlefield,” Ruby said as she ran off, Riolu still in her grasp.

“Are you out of your fucking mind!?!” Chrys quietly scolded. The unicorn looked down to him.

“Gallade!” said the Blade Pokémon in agreement.

“Look. You do ‘Tackle’ a few times, let an attack hit you, then lose,” she explained. “It’ll be over and done with and can go to bed.”

“Something tells me that won’t work out so well. What if I drop the transformation as I get hit!?!” he angrily asked. Gallade nodded in agreement.

“That won’t be a proble ‘cause you’re not gonna do that.” Chrys adopted the same look that Phoenix Wright gets when he is completely shocked. “Let’s get this over with, c’mon.”

Sunset picked up Chrys and followed Ruby out the front door. All of her other pokémon followed her. Gallade had a hand on his forehead, sighing at the disaster this was more than likely going to ensue. Chrys didn’t back down however, as he flailed all the way to the battlefield right outside of the SuperCenter.

“Quit squirming! You’re gonna tire yourself out!” Sunset said, tightening her grip. Chrys quit struggling and crossed his forelegs.

”Fuckin’ god damn bullshit.” He looked up to Sunset with a glare. “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Good,” Sunset declared, dropping Chrys in front of her. He ran forward and readied himself for whatever nightmare he was about to experience. “We’re ready Ruby!”

“Okay cool!” Ruby shouted back, taking out a pokéball and throwing it up. “Come on out!”

What exited the pokéball made Chrys gulp in fear. Standing in front of him, looking down at him, was a Lurantis. It stared at him with a serious look.

“Uh Ruby. This is a baby pokémon we’re training here,” Sunset said, trying to save Chrys the pain he was about to receive.

“Don’t worry Sunny. We’ll go easy!” Ruby said, not convincing the faux Poochyena she was about to demolish. “You can go first.”

“Well okay uh,” Sunset stammered, confused on what to do. “Use Tackle?”

This is already a disaster and we haven’t even started, Chrys thought as he ran at Lurantis. When his body connected, as expected, he did no damage. He landed on the ground, backpedaling away from his opponent.

“Use Leaf Blade.” Lurantis did as Ruby commanded. It swung its long arm at Chrys who ducked under it. When Lurantis tried again, he jumped over it. When take three rolled around, Chrys got hit in the side. He flew into the wall of the Pokémon Center and comically slid down it into some bushes.

“Chry- uh Poochyena! You good!” Sunset yelled. Upon that question, she saw a green flash of light. “Oh shit.” There was another green flash and Poochyena jumped out of the bushes. “Oh thank Celestia. Use, fuggin, uh, Bite, I guess.”

Chrys charged at the Lurantis and bit down on its leg, causing a yelp of pain to come from the pokémon. Said pokémon kicked him off and readied another attack. “Petal Blizzard,” Ruby called. A barrage of petals slammed into the changeling turned Poochyena, and he hit the floor hard. A flash a green fire enveloped him again, revealing his true form.

“Oh shit,” Chrys said waiting for the shrieking of Ruby. None came, as she went rigid as her jaw dropped. “I guess that’s better than what I was expecting.”

“Get back in the bush!” Sunset yelled as she ran over to her friend, who gave her an incredulous look. Chrys did just that, crouching like a catcher in the bushes. He looked down at his knees so his horn wouldn’t stick out. He then saw something unsettling.

“Sunset! My legs are green now!” He said panicked.

“Yeah I know. It’s another ability newbloods have. Chameleon-like camouflage. Chrysalis shaped you all to be exactly like she wanted you to be,” she explained. This helped relax Chrys.

“What the hell is going on here!?!” Ruby asked her friend.

“I can explain!” Sunset said, putting her hands up defensively.

“Well you better or I’m gonna kick your ass straight up to the cloud section of this damn city.”

“Cloud section?” Chrys asked.

“Las Pegasus was originally a cloud city but they expanded it to the ground several years ago. Pegasi are able to manipulate the clouds and they control the weather here so that’s how that all works if you’re wondering,” Sunset explained.

“Why do you need to explain that to him? That’s common knowledge,” Ruby said.

“Well... that’s a long story.” Sunset then proceeded to explain everything. She told the dragoness who and what Chrys actually was, his whole predicament, and their plan to go to the Changeling Kingdom. As Sunset explained, Ruby began to understand and she regained control of her temper.

“I think I get it,” Ruby said. The gang had worked their way back to the hotel room. Chrys managed to transform into Poochyena again, albiet painfully, and they made it back without incident.

“So we need to go to this Thorax guy in order to help me figure this shit out so I dont keel over,” Chrys said.

“Okay then. I’ll help in any way I can!” Ruby exclaimed with a wide smile.

“Huh,” said Sunset and Chrys in unison.

“I’ll help you,” she repeated. “I’ll go with you to the Changeling Kindom.”

“That was a hell of a turnaround,” Riolu commented. Ruby picked up the pokémon and brought her to her chest, making Riolu melt in a mixture of embarrassment and pure happiness. “Can we keep her Chrys?”

“I don’t care either way. I just wanna get better. Sunset?” the changeling asked.

“Why not. We could use all the help we can get.”

“Sounds good. We’re gonna want to rest up, especially you,” she said, gesturing towards the changeling. “You need to hold that for a whole train ride.”

“Fuck me, I do have to do that,” Chrys groaned. “How long is this train ride again?”

“It gets here in two days and the whole trip takes about 13 hours, give or take. It stops in Ponyville and the we have to transfer to another train that goes to the Kingdom,” Sunset said.

“I am going to die.”

“You’re not gonna die,” Sunset groaned.

“I can’t last two days then another 13 hours! I’m running on pure adrenaline at this point, and that’s also just about run dry!”

”It’ll be fine. We’ll get you through this,” Riolu reassured him, walking up to him and hugging his leg. Chrys couldn’t help but smile as that tingly feeling ran up his back again.

“I wonder what that is,” he thought aloud.

“What what is?” Ruby asked.

“I’ve gotten this tingle up my back at random times and it just happened again.”

“Oh!” Ruby exclaimed. “That’s you feeding.”

“Huh.”

“Newblood changelings can passively feed on positive emotions directed towards them through physical contact. You’re feeding off of the positive emotions that Riolu is emitting towards you. It’s the best case scenario since you don’t hurt her,” the red dragoness explained. “She’s comforting you and your able to absorb the emotional energy into your body, providing you with some sustainable food source. It’s not great but it’s something.”

“I’d question how you got your knowledge of that, but that just makes sense. In fact those previous times are probably what allowed you to transform into Poochyena again!” Sunset said. “You’ll be fine for a couple more days if you feed off of the positive emotions directed towards you. Can you recall other times that that’s happened?”

“When you hugged me before the elevator ride earlier,” he said matter of factly, causing Sunset to blush. “Also when Cutiefly nuzzled up against me while we were watching stupid game shows,” Chrys said.

“They are not stupid,” Riolu interjected. “They are life.”

“Since it happens when physical contact is made,” Ruby said, completely ignoring Riolu’s remark. She didn’t continue much past that, since she proceeded to pull Chrys into a bone crushing hug that left him short of breath. He did, however, get the same sensation along his back. He tapped her to the best of his ability to get her to let go. Once she did, his eyes lit up.

“Yeah that works! Holy shit it works! It’s perverted as all hell but I can feel the hunger slowly going away,” Chrys exclaimed.

“Great! So we just show you physical affection until we reach Thorax so he can teach you the magic,” Ruby said excitedly.

“I hope we get there without incident,” Sunset commented. “With Flurry Heart here, there lies a serious problem of running into her.”

“I have a pretty easy solution to that problem,” Ruby said, smirking. Taking the silence as the inevitable ‘please explain’ comment that would’ve come along, she threw a pokéball towards the window of the room. Out of the ball came a Garchomp. Chrys’ went numb when he heard this.

“Imma fly on a fuckin’ Garchomp,” he said giddily. “And people said I wouldn’t do great things.”

“Okay then. That’s great. Let’s rest up then. We got a long couple of days ahead of us and a long train ride after that.”

Author's Note

There may have been continuity errors throughout this since I’m just putting it out cuz it’s been long enough and I’ve written on and off for the whole time so let me know if there are glaring errors.

Edit: Went back myself and noticed a couple so I fixed them.

https://youtu.be/OiTAH9TNSv8